-“Kamikatsu” Study Tour-

Main:Japan has been considered as a leading developed country among Asia, while it has been also experiencing the most advanced social issues during and after its economic development.
“Kamikatsu” town has been known for the model case of the typical rural community in Japan – where everyone is suffering from the aging & depopulation which results in the lack of manpower and industries to sustain the community - which successfully planned and implemented the new industry “Irodori” Social Enterprise, as well as the sustainable community development policy of “Zero Waste”.

Kamikatsu has been also investing for the development of next generation and started “Internship” and “Study Tour” Programs. These Programs has provided opportunities for younger generation in the urban area to experience Kamikatsu rural life, connect with local people, and to consider actually spending their life in Kamikatsu.

Then now, this Program has been launched also to invite “YOU” from outside of Japan!
If you are interested in any of below, please contact us!

*ATTENTION*
We ONLY do accept participants who are eager to learn about Kamikatsu’s case studies in community development.

 Visiting/Tasting a bit of rural local community life of Tokushima, Shikoku Island, Japan;
 Learning successful model case of social enterprise and resource development in rural community;
 Learning successful model case of sustainable / environment-friendly community development policy implementation; and/or
 Seeing beautiful Japanese mountainous nature!

-Program Outline-

Duration: 1 full day.You can get to choose the arrangements from below 2 options:
-Type#1: Day0: arrival to Kamikatsu, Day1: join the program, Day2: departure from Kamikatsu
-Type#2: Day1morning: arrival to Kamikatsu, Day1afternoon: join the program part1, Day2morning: join the program part2, Day2afternoon: departure from Kamikatsu

“Irodori” means “colourful” – represents the Kamikatsu brand of “Tsuma”, decoration of traditional Japanese dishes using fresh natural leaves and flowers. Kamikatsu is known for the main production community of “Tsuma”, having more than 80% of its market share.

Kamikatsu was once a production area for citrus and oranges – however back in 1981, severe cold weather attached Kamikatsu area, and all citrus and orange trees died out. Thus Kamikatsu had to renovate the main industry and shifted agricultural products with more varieties and founded “Tsuma” as one solution – since there are so many colourful leaves in Kamikatsu’s mountains!

“Irodori” is currently run mainly by elder generation over 70 or 80 and also mainly by women - the product is very light and easy for them to carry – some of them earn more than 10 million Japanese Yen per year, and “Irodori” itself became the main industry of Kamikatsu.
This is known as the model case for both community industry regrowth and creating working opportunities for the aged population in the rural area.

Participants will not only get to have the introduction to the “Irodori” model, but also get to visit one of the farmers to learn how they work.

 About the Japan’s first “Zero Waste” declaration & policy

Kamikatsu is also known as the first local community to declare “Zero Waste” in Japan. The declaration shows the ambition towards keeping the rich natural environment for future generations and to work on 1) development of ecologically conscience individuals; 2) producing “zero” wastes for incineration and landfill by 2020, by accelerating re-using & recycling; and 3) making circle of people who aims the same, in all over the world.

To achieve this ambition, Kamikatsu has started various approaches based on the “3R” waste management policy of Japan: “Re-duce”: “Re-use” and “Re-cycle”. As an example of “Recycle”, Kamikatsu established the waste collection center for people to bring their own daily wastes and separate them into more than 34 categories, so that only few goes into the category of “no other way but needs to be burnt”.

Participants will visit the town’s only one recycling center, and learn about the Zero Waste policy of the town from the “Zero Waste Academy”, the non-profit organization established to drive the Zero Waste policy in Kamikatsu and towards the world.

 About Kamikatsu

Kamikatsu is located in the center of Tokushima prefecture, in Shikoku Island, Japan. It is the “smallest” town in Shikoku Island, in terms of its population – 1,662 (April 1st, 2016) and more than 51% of it is aged over 65. Kamikatsu is the typical rural mountainous community in Japan, where the depopulation is the critical issue – every year, population is decreasing due to the high rate of natural decline overtaking the birth rate.
However, Kamikatsu is known for two main successful model cases of the community development: “Irodori” and the “Zero Waste Declaration”.